Olympic legacy for roads

Improvements in how the country’s busiest roads are managed have come about as a direct result of lessons learned from London 2012.

That’s the verdict from road bosses speaking at an industry event in London earlier this week.

The event – London 2012 lessons and legacy – was held at the Institution of Civil Engineers on Monday (23 June). It was put on by the Roads Academy – a new professional development programme designed to encourage innovation and best practice across the roads industry.

Ways of working that were pioneered while planning for last summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games have led to improvements in planning roadworks, managing traffic flows during busy times and how incidents are responded to.

Now the challenge of turning progress made during the Games into a lasting legacy has been presented to the Roads Academy.

Speaking at the event were leaders from the Highways Agency, Transport for London, the Institution of Civil Engineers, BAM Nuttall and CH2M Hill.

TfL director of roads Dana Skelley said: “Moving millions of people across London was obviously one of the major challenges of the London 2012 Games. Despite the scale of the challenge posed to London’s transport network, transport arrangements were enormously successful, not least due to unprecedented collaboration with partners and a focus on delivering both a record performance and a joined-up customer experience. Investment in state-of-the-art traffic management systems played a vital role in keeping London moving. New technology systems, upgraded traffic signals and improved modelling are all leaving a legacy of better managed roads and smoother traffic flow throughout the capital.”

Highways Agency chief executive Graham Dalton added: “A relentless focus on performance and innovative solutions – like the ones we developed for the Games – will be crucial in making maximum use out of our road network, a vital national asset, in the years ahead while ensuring we continue to deliver best value for taxpayers’ money. The Roads Academy, which is tasked with driving change across the roads industry, is a great forum to help make sure we can draw lessons from the Games and use them in the future.”